Control mechanism for cotton-gin feeders



Get. 23, 1928.

T. ELLIOTT CONTROL MECHANISM FOR COTTONGIN FEEDERS Filed Nov. 20, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet I mcnl'oz THOMAS ELL IOTT Chrome/ Oct. 23, 1928. 1,688,616

I T. ELLIOTT CONTROL MECHANISM FOR-COTTON GIN FEEDERS Filed Nov. 20, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Get. 23, 1923.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS ELLIOTT, OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, ASSIGNOR TO CONTINENTAL GIN COM PANY, A CQRPORA'IION' OF DELAUARE.

CONTROL MECHANISM FOR COTTON-GIN FEEDERS.

Application filed November 20, 1926. Serial No. 149,769.

This invention has general reference to mechanism adapted for cleaning cotton while at the same time regulating its feed to a gin; and refers more particularly to improvements in the means by which the feed of the cleaned cotton is controlled in such mechanism.

A primary object of the present invention is to provide improved means by which the raising of the gin breast automatically stops the operation of the feeding mechanism; and a further object is to combine with such automatic stop apparatus, means for preventing the further feeding of cotton to the gin, due to movement of the feeder elements after the automatic stop has operated.

The means by which the foregoing and other objects are accon'iplished by my invention, and the manner of their accomplishment, readily will be understood from the. following description on reference to the accompanying drawings, which depict a preferred embodiment of the invention, and in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a cotton cleaner feeder having my improvements applied thereto, a portion of the adjusting and manipulating lever being broken away.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the handle of the operating rod, showing the manner of its connection to the gin breast.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional detail view of the parts at the upper end of the operating rod.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged perspective detail view of the feeder chute and its hinged apron, a portion of one side of the chute being broken away to show the means for manipulating the apron by movement of the gin breast.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional detail view of the apron.

Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view showing the feeder rolls for the gin feeder mechanism.

Referring now to the drawings, in which corresponding parts are identified by similar reference characters throughout the several views, the embodiment of my invention illustrated shows conventionally a feeder casing 7 superimposed upon the frame 8 of a gin having a typical breast 9 adapted to be raised and lowered in the manner well understood by those skilled in this art; The feeder may be of any suitable type, as its structural details form no essential part of this invention. As formally illustrated, it comprises shafts 10 and 11 which drive the feeder rollers 10 and lower end of the feeder chute and its 11 and on the shaft 10 is secured a multiplering gear 12 having any desired number of concentric rows of gear teeth disposed at different distances from its center of rotation. In position to co-aet with this gear is a pinion 18 mounted to slide on a driven shaft 14 in a direction radially of the gear 12. This pinion is controlled by an adjusting and manipulating lever 15, which is mounted so as to adapt it both to shift the pinion axially along its shaft into mesh with the desired row of teeth in gear 12, and also to rock both the shaft lland the pinion 13 outwardly in order to disengage the pinion from the gear 12 and permit it to be shifted from one row of teeth to another row. The lever is associated with suitable latch members 16 and 17 by which it may be set to hold the pinion in the desired operative relation to the gear 12.

All of the foregoing is of standard construction.

The pinion shaft 1 1 enters a housing 18 through an enlarged opening 19 having a suitable loose cover 20, said opening being enlarged to provide for the rocking movements of the shaft necessary for the changes in the operating position of the driving pinion. Within the housing I mount fast on the shaft 14 a worm wheel 21, beyond which the shaft projects and is entered in athrust bearing 22 the lower end of which bears slidably against a seat 23 provided therefor on the inner wall of the housing. On said bearing is secured a collar 24 to which is pivotally connected a pin 25, which carries on its inner end a spring seat 26, and the outer end of pin 25 projects without the housing and is engaged to the ben end 27 of its operating rod 28, by means of acotter pin 29, between which and the operating rod 27 is interposed a washer 30. The operating rod itself is mounted to slide through a guide 31 on the housing, and projects at a forward and downward inclination so that a notched handle 32 secured at its lower end is adapted to engage a pin 83 on a bracket 34 rigidly secured to the breast of the gin. A spring 35 surrounds the pin 25, and is under compression with its outer end seated against the housing and its inner end bearing against the spring seat 26, so that it tends to force the worm wheel 21 into mesh with a worm 36 fast on the feeder drive shaft 14 which enters the housing 18 and extends through the feeder casing 7 and carries the main rotating feeder element 43, shown in dotted lines.- The spring ess thus tends to press the operating rod 28 in a forward and downward direction, and to oppose the motion imparted to said rod by the pin 33 upon the raising of the gin breast, which motion will shift the rod axially a sufli cient distance to disengage the worm wheel from the worm, and will thus interrupt auto matically the drive of the disk 12 and of the feed rolls 10 and 11 through the meshing gears 45 and 46 on the shafts 10 and 11, respectively.

Due to the continuous drive of the rotating feeder element 48 it will, after the gin breast has been raised and the drive to the feeder rolls 10 and 11 has been interrupted, continue to feed the cotton remaining in the feeder down the feeder chute 37 into the gin. It is the special purpose of this invention to correlate with the automatic stop mechanism for the feed roller drive, a means which will prevent the continued feed of cotton to the gin by the feeder element l3, and to this end I interpose at some suitable point in the chute 37, preferably at its discharge end, an apron 38 connected tothe chute by hinges 39 and adapted normally to form a flush continuation of the bottom of the chute. This apron, however, is capable of being swung pivotally upward between the side walls of the chute into position whereby it acts as a baflie to arrest the flow of the cotton fed to the chute by the feeder. To control the manipulation of the apron, I attach to its bottom at the respective ends two angle members 40, the free ends 41 of which are bent outwardly and upwardly, then at right angles, and have rods 12 pivotally connected thereto, said rods being adapted for pivotal connection with the gin breast in such a manner that the raising movement of the breast will raise the apron to its upright position, as shown in dotted lines in Fig, l and in full lines in Fig. i.

Thus, by means shown and described herein, and in a manner simply and automatically accomplished, I not only stop the drive of the feed for the feeder when the gin breast is raised but at the same time I stop any discharge of cotton from the feed chute into the open gin breast. Also, by providing through the spring 26 for a resilient connection be tween the upper end of the operating rod 28,

and the worm wheel 21, said wheel, upon re turn of the gin breast to closed position, is yieldingly moved into mesh with the worm 36, thereby insuring the rem-eshing of said gear members without the-lowering of the gin breast being interrupted or delayed.

Various modifications of minor details of the improvements disclosed herein doubtless readily will suggest themselves to those skilled in this art, but such modifications fall within the scope of my inventive rights, and my invention is not to be construed as being limited to any details not specifically set out in the claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is 1* 1. The combination with means for feeding cotton to a gin breast, .of means automatically responsive to the raising of the gin breast to intercept the delivery of cotton into the gin.

2. The combination with a feeder for a cotton gin and drive means for the feeder, of agencies automatically responsive to the raising of the gin breast both to interrupt the feed to the feeder and to intercept the delivery of cotton from the feeder into the gin.

3. he combination with a cotton gin feeder having a discharge chute for delivering cotton into a gin breast and a suitable driving mechanism for thefeeder, of means operable responsive to the raising of the gin breast to interrupt the feed to the feeder, and a baille movable by the raising of the gin breast into the path of the cotton on the chute to intercept same until the gin breast is lower ed.

V 4. The combination, with mechanism for feeding cotton through a chute to a gin breast, means for driving such mechanism, and a hinged baffle in the chute, of connecting means between the gin breast on the one hand and said driving means and baffle on the other hand, whereby raising of the gin breast automatically and simultaneously renders said driving means inefiective to drive said feeding mechanism and stop the discharge of cotton from the chute. y 7

' In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

THOMAS ELLIOTT. 

